Sunday, April 24, 2016

Everyone Brave is Forgiven

Everyone Brave is Forgiven by Chris Cleave

What a gem of a
book!Everyone Brave is Forgiven
is set at the outbreak of World War II, and while there are many novels set
during that war, there is always something new to discover when a story is in
capable hands.

Chris Cleave loosely
used his grand parents’ story to tell us this one.Mary North could easily have sat out the war
enclosed as her mother was in an elegant home with servants and the protection
of the government.But when the war
broke out she immediately saw herself as a spy and went to the War Office to
volunteer her services.They assigned
her as a teacher. While she might not have had much experience as a spy, she
had even less as a teacher.

Tom Shaw is her
superior, but not by much, and makes sure Mary has what she needs mostly, students.Tom doesn’t understand Mary’s fierce determination
to teach the children the rest of London doesn’t want.In less than a week the children in her first
class are sent to the countryside to be kept safe from possible London
bombings.But there are children that
the people in the countryside don’t want, the crippled, the feeble, the black and so they send them back.These are the children Mary is determined to
stand by, keep safe and teach.

Tom also decides he is
going to sit out the war but his roommate and best friend Alistair Heath does
not. It is when Mary, who is engaged to Tom, and Alistair meet that hearts are
examined and the war makes its own decisions.

Author Chris Cleave
has given us a book that is tender, funny, emotional, and breaks your heart.